


The Thing.

by minkmix



Category: Yoroiden Samurai Troopers | Ronin Warriors
Genre: M/M, Romance, Sorta.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 09:00:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15045512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minkmix/pseuds/minkmix
Summary: Ryo is confronted with time served. An anniversary. She said more.https://plnunn.com/fiction/?story=the-ice-storm





	The Thing.

About this capture

"I'm sorry sir, this can only end in tears..."  
\--That wacky bat dude from Anastasia--

The Thing

by Mink

 

The ground was white from the snow fall after two days of lazy lace, slowly burying the house, settling on the old forest trees and turning the creek that ran down from the mountains into a glass sculpture. The sky was a white blurry frenzy of the gentle lethargic storm.

Ryo sat an inch behind the safety of the living room window watching it all, his chin resting on his hands. Fogging up the frigid glass and making smiley faces was only interesting for so long. Sai had chased him away from the thermostat for the last time threatening as only Sai could threaten, and the only threat of the three he actually feared.  
_I can see a mirage coming off the kitchen floors. Leave it alone or I will rip the bloody thing out of the wall and then you can play with it all you want?_  
Ryo had backed off. It was just that he was so cold and it drove him to the small metal dial jacking up the degrees until even Sai complained.

To compensate he had put on t-shirt over his thermal undershirt, a sweater over that and then cocooned himself in a blanket. He didn't understand how Seiji stood it. The tall warrior had packed up some gear and disappeared out the door without a single word to anyone two days ago. Ryo knew the routine. Five days.

The icicles that hung over the edges of the house made his teeth clench. Cold didn't usually bother him so much. Nothing usually bothered him very much unless he had time to dwell on it. Unfortunately he had plenty of time. Rowan and himself had finally declared a draw playing Mortal Combat after a 26 hour marathon. The alternative of getting his ass whipped at Frogger wasn't any fun. Sai's frog would humiliate his frog time and time again with some secret moves Ryo couldn't find listed in Gamer magazine. Hence, his days were filled with little else than watching out the broad windows and his nights were filled with a ceiling or a paper back copy of the Catcher in the Rye. He was waiting.

Seiji usually came home exhausted and frozen in exactly five days. The trips might be the occasional surprise but the length and outcome were like clockwork. Ryo suspected Seiji didn't sleep on these sojourns, but meditated out there, somewhere, lost in the woods and lost to the world. It wasn't worry but the dull unseated panic of the separation of the five as he waited.

Ryo closed his eyes against the blaring white landscape. Somewhere. Ryo saw Seiji seated motionless behind a fragile lattice of ice, frozen water still trickling through it. Seiji's pale blue eyes opened slowly.

Ryo shut down his link before Seiji had time to recognize it. But he felt Seiji's mind touch his before the link evaporated, and it was full of calm and cold, harsh air and crystalline serenity. It seemed like an entire year had gone by since the touch of Seiji's mind had turned into the touch of Seiji's hand. It had been a late winter, after they had all just turned 18. There had been rain that should have been snow when the day came. It seemed like an entire year ago that Seiji had put his lips to Ryo's and didn't let Ryo back  
away.

Ryo blinked several times and let the blanket fall away from his shoulders. It had been a year. Exactly a year in exactly three days.

 

Three days went by.

Ryo sat in front of the television but wasn’t watching it. The Thing was today and he still hadn’t come up with a single idea. Seiji had yet to return from his solo sojourn in the wilds. It was getting late afternoon, maybe he wouldn’t return as foretold. The thought was comforting. Maybe Ryo could let the day go quietly by and not have to worry about expressing a Hallmark card’s sentiment. 

The problem was Ryo had never really seen an anniversary. Or experienced one for that matter. His very young life was with his grandmother and the only annual thing they ever celebrated was the world series. After her death, most of the youth center's he had drifted in and out of gave a card on your birthday if they remembered. Truth be told, Seiji wasn't a real heart felt guy that would inspire such sentimentality anyway. Ryo might not have had the appropriate training in things romantic but he always found the concept comforting. The words, the right lighting, the right place. It made him a little jealous sometimes when Rowan and Sai suddenly laughed or whispered in public. Not that Seiji and he didn't have extraordinary private moments. Some moments were so extraordinary they left marks on him for days. But even beyond Seiji's exhausting physical expressions, they did share their own type of intimacy. A type one would doubt unless it was personally witnessed. 

Like a UFO or something.

Seiji did whisper to him sometimes just like Sai and Rowan did. Except it was late at night. He would say things that made Ryo want time to stop. Not niceties or love poems, but secrets and thoughts, Seiji's stream of thought, sometimes even his fears. The night before Seiji had left, they had spent the night in one long slow unhurried kiss, Seiji had moaned and stretched in the small way he did when his body accepted Ryo's. It was a side of Seiji's temperament that came only in private and only with Ryo. Ryo realized what it cost Seiji to say what he did, to feel what he did even if the safety of night, and Ryo protected the secret of it as vehemently as he would Seiji's life. He didn't expect the others to understand. It was this side that made Ryo believe that maybe somewhere, as abstruse and hidden as it would seem, Seiji might expect Ryo to do something to honor whatever it was they had.

If Seiji even knows its been a year. Ryo thought dismally. Seiji had moments, but he wasn't a sentimental person by any stretch of even the most hopeful imagination.

"Seiji's back."

"What?" Ryo felt his face flush pink, positive Rowan could read his thoughts across his forehead.

"I said," Rowan was on the floor sprawled in a bean bag (which was way beyond it’s retirement) with a twizzler hanging out of the corner of his mouth. “Seiji’s back.”

Ryo started when the key clicked into the lock one second after Rowan’s announcement. The sound of the door opening and shutting quietly were slow. Seiji appeared briefly as he passed them towards the hall. The sound of footsteps on the stairs grew fainter, the sound of his door closing, fainter still.

“Nice to see you to.” Rowan said conversationally as he flipped channels. “We’re fine.”

Ryo pulled down the newspaper he had been crushing in his hands.

“Wonder what he does out in the woods all by himself.” Rowan wondered idly, pausing a few moments on Bay Watch before continuing the never ending surf. “Ignore the squirrels?”

Ryo forced a small laugh even though Rowan was laughing at himself.

Today!!? How could I have not thought of a single thing all week?!

“Decided yet?” Rowan asked in an uncanny echo of his thoughts.

Ryo tried to play innocent. “Uhh what cha mean?”

Rowan sighed and chewed on his twizzler.” Ya know. A littl’diner? A littl’dancin? Re new yer vows?” Rowan’s body hitched in a laugh. “Sucks to be you.”

Ryo scowled. It has to be something good. Ryo thought of every romantic thing he had ever witnessed. They had all pretty much been on TV and involved people drinking wine in the dark all dressed up. Wine made him gag and Seiji only drank some special sake that came in a thin blue bottle. Ryo had tasted it and it didn't seem much different from the sake that Rowan bought in the cheery green gallon jugs for a few dollars at the corner liquor store.

He brightened. “Hey! Hey Rowan? You think you could do some of that sky writ-” Rowan’s turn with combined look were enough to shut Ryo up. “K, fergitit.”

The sickly remote died right on the QVC channel. Rowan slammed the control ten times instead of sitting up and changing it, even thought the cable box sat on top of the TV, two feet away from his face. “Great.” Rowan sighed but then gave the bubbly salesgirl an appraising look. "Ya know, I always wanted a limited edition."

"A limited edition what?" Ryo asked, completely uninterested.

"Oh anything." Rowan bit the ends off his twizzler and dropped it in his coke to use as a straw. "Elvis plate. Ceramic duck. Maybe one of them salad shooters."  
The item for sale in fact was not salad shooter nor a duck. It was a crystal flower vase filled with deep red long stem roses.

“Hey Ryo? How about you and me take Seiji to a strip club and buy him some lap dances?”

Rowan turned to get a good look at the outrage on Ryo’s face. But Ryo was gone.

 

 

 

Ryo bit at his lip and looked sideways at Sai who had settled down onto the couch beside him to flip through the latest issue of Vogue.  
Ryo drummed his fingertips on the coffee table.

Ryo whistled.

 

Ryo pulled stuffing out of the couch.

How did he put it? Rowan was out back and Kento was out. Seiji was still locked away in his room. He had been hoping for a moment like this so he could talk to Sai alone. Ryo opened his mouth and then shut it. He scratched his head biting at the inside of his mouth. Would Sai laugh at him?

“Is there something..," Sai cleared his throat and slowly looked sideways without turning his head from his magazine. ".... wrong Ryo?”

Ryo felt his face get hot and he stared hard at a picture on the wall. “No. Yes. Not really?”

Sai was all concern and put his Vogue aside. “What is it Ryo?”

Ryo blurted it out before he could even think. “Um well you see there’s this THING coming up and I was wondering what I should do?”

Sai blinked in confusion. “Thing?”

Ryo keep talking hoping that somewhere in his incoherent blather he might hopefully be able to get his point across. “Yeah and it’s really weird ya know? Cuz I have never had a thing let alone a THING and I kinda don’t wanna screw it all up really badly?”

Sai’s look of confusion shifted to a vague understanding and then mercy. “Come to the kitchen. We’ll talk there.”

Several cups of tea later Ryo had gained enough composure to look Sai in the eye.

Sai sat very seriously opposite him, straining his tea bag before laying it aside on a small porcelain dish. “Now,” he began, “ about this thing?”

Ryo felt his chest heaving in mild anxiety and tried to calm himself. “Yeah?”

Sai rolled his eyes. “Ryo! How am I to help you if you can’t even say ANNIVERSARY out loud?”

Ryo cringed, looking to the window to make sure it was shut. Rowan was out shooting at targets but damn Rowan if he didn’t have awesome hearing. Especially when it came to  
crap like this.

Anniversary. The word made the whole idea seem so ancient, even boring. Ryo realized he hadn't been thinking of the conclusion of a year as an Anniversary although that was exactly what it was. Anniversaries were for old people and parks dedicated to war heroes. A year of Seiji, that accomplishment deserved a better word than that.

“It’s really very sweet of you Ryo.” Sai assured him, talking in a normal tone of voice that sounded like shouting to Ryo. Any second Kento was going to walk in laughing his head off. “I didn’t even realize it had been a year!” Sai thoughtfully sipped his steaming tea while Ryo had a heart attack.

“Could ya keep it down Sai?” Ryo rushed to the window and quickly shut the curtains then peeked under them to reassure himself no one was there.

“Would you calm down, I've never quite seen you so jittery!” Sai admonished, tapping out a cigarette out of a pack left on the table and offering it to Ryo.

“No thank you.” Ryo watched Sai search the table and then his pockets for a light. Ryo produced a small flame in his palm and held it up for Sai. “Funny.”  
“Hmm?” Sai lit his cigarette.

The flame vanished as fast as it appeared. “That you smoke and I don’t.” Ryo have him a lopsided grin and picked up his hot tea cup with slightly trembling hands.

Sai smiled. “They’re Rowans.”

Ryo shrugged. There was a very fine line that determined what was Sai’s and what was Rowan’s nowadays. Sai smoked a cig or two every now and then. He watched Sai ash eloquently into an glass ashtray. Ryo covertly found it appealing, like the aggressive chain smoke sessions Rowan frequently engaged in, a James Dean notching an arrow between languid drags.

“Now, what did you have in mind?” White smoke unfurled over them under the kitchen lamp.

Ryo shrugged with a sigh. “I dunno? He isn’t quite...um he isn’t-”

“Normal?” Sai guessed.

“No not that!” Ryo snapped. “He’s normal." He poked at his tea bag. "Kinda.”

Sai’s eyebrows lifted in a dubious gesture as he evaded the statement by drinking his tea. “I suppose a nice card would be out of the question?”  
With a groan Ryo thumped his head against the table. “I should just forget it ya know?” He covered his head with his arms. “It’s a dumb idea anyway.”

“It sure is.” Rowan said dumping his duffel and stomping snow on the kitchen floor. "God damn it's cold out there."

“Oh no.” Ryo murmured not lifting his head.

“I gotta great idea!” Kento suggested as he walked in to rummage in the fridge. "Whatchamacallit, like, lemonade, farm aid-- 

Sai rolled his eyes. “Serenade!”

“Yeah! You could do that!” Kento cracked open a beer.

“That’s a terrible idea Kento.” Rowan relieved him of his frothy can. “Have you heard Recca sing?”

Ryo hid his face in the crook of his arm and moaned. “I don’t feel so good.”

“You both are so nosy!” Sai frown at them and then gave Ryo a sympathetic pat on the hand. “Ignore them Ryo, I am sure that whatever you decide will be lovely?”

Ryo breathed deeply. "Okay." He stood bracing himself and lifting his chin high. "I do kinda sorta have an... idea." His chin fell a little and his eyes pleaded for Sai's approval. "From TV?"

"What ever you think is right Ryo?" Sai smiled softly, "You know best?"

"Is it a limited addition Elvis plate?" Rowan asked, crushing the now empty beer can on the counter.

"Where are the keys," Ryo ordered, his dark eyes stern. "I have to go out."

 

It was a silent cold evening and the snow was still falling. Seiji didn’t say anything when he returned to his room after a brief trip to the kitchen and found Ryo sitting on his neatly made bed. He simply undressed and went to take a bath. He turned the water almost to boiling and settled into the scalding water slowly.

His week away had been a soothing change. The arctic nights and frigid days had gone by in profound peace, the deep contemplation achieved in the heart of nature and away from the constant cascade of noise and movement was unlike anything. His blade moved better in the cold wind and his step was sure in the deep snow.

But it was nice to come home.

Emerging from the hot steamy confines of the white tiled bath, he met the chill of his room, the frigid air kissing and steaming on his heated skin. He enjoyed the transition. The scalding comfort of the water to the ice touch of the winter's air that stole his body heat so completely wasn't discomfort exactly. It was the sudden shocking change that made him grit his teeth and breath harder, the anticipation of the mountains sending their winds rushing up against the windows that shuddered in their panes. Each time it made him remember that he could do more than just withstand it. He could enjoy its efforts.

Ryo was moving around in the inner room. That was another transition he enjoyed. The chill in his body that seemed to settle to the core in seconds could be warmed, brought to life next to the steady unflagging heat Ryo kept. Seiji left his towel draped carefully across the rack, corners matching, he wanted to be near Ryo when distance usually suited him. The feel of bare skin on Ryo's jeans and t-shirt were as anticipated as the promise of rest. He hadn't slept in days.

The sight that greeted him made him pause. Not only was Ryo, Sanada Ryo, in a tuxedo (with the same grace he’d don in a straight jacket ), the entire bed had been covered in long stem roses and dozens of lit candles had been placed with great care around the room. Seiji realized with vague horror, they had been almost strategically placed for...ambiance.

Seiji's eyebrow raised. “Ryo-”

“Happy Anniversary Seiji?” Ryo timidly held out one of the roses. The proffered dark flower faltered a bit when Seiji did not reach out to take it from him.

“This is.” Seiji was somewhat at a loss,” ...different.”

Before he could say another word, in a brief but dizzying display of spontaneity, Ryo grabbed his wrist and flung Seiji’s naked body onto the rose littered bed and landed on top of him. Seiji's eyes flew open as Ryo's weight pressed him back into the sea of flowers and he realized all at once, with a sharp intake of breath, what the real problem of this blatant romantic setting Ryo had crafted straight from Day of Our Lives or a optimistic prom date fantasy, even if it's creator did not. Who was at the moment, looking more confused and uncertain by the second. “You hate it don’t you?” Ryo whispered when Seiji was not returning his kiss.  
“Yes.” Seiji said simply frozen in place.

Ryo sighed in misery. “I just wanted to-”

"Would you like to know why?"

Ryo paused with a blink. "Okay?"  
“Well Ryo,” Seiji began in a patient pained hiss, “you maybe could have DE-thorned these roses first?”

Ryo’s eyes went from confusion to round horror.

“Please get off of me.”

Ryo quickly scrambled to his feet. “Seiji, I’m sorr-”

Seiji painfully stood. Ryo of course had not gotten pricked by a single thorn. He was fully clothed in that ridiculous tuxedo and Seiji had broken his fall nicely. "Is there something you would like to talk about?"

Ryo had stepped away from Seiji. "What?"

"Are you..." Seiji paused, unprepared and uncomfortable about a speech."... angry about something?" Seiji's skin was ablaze with thorns.

"No!" Ryo shook his head vigorously. "No! I just didn't- I mean I didn't know- oh fuck it." Ryo slumped onto the window sill his head in his hands. “Seiji yer covered with them.”

Seiji felt the harsh sting all up and down his back, the backs of his legs and knees, his arms,even tangled in his damp hair. “Good night Ryo.”

Ryo stood, flustered and horrified. Seiji listened to Ryo picked up the shattered remains of the romantic fiasco while he yanked out the last of the thorns from unspeakable places. Candles were extinguished, ice buckets collected, champagne recorked. The door opened carefully.

“Ryo?” Seiji said, yanking a thorn that was deep into the soft skin of his thigh.

“Yes?”

“It's next month.” Seiji winced as he pulled a thorn from his side. “Same date." 

 

* * *

 

 

A month went by and everyone tried to forget the three garbage bags of flowers that sat out by the curb until garbage day, filling the yard with a semi-sweet rotting scent of putrid rose. Rowan mentioned more than once that he was forced into memories of his grandmother’s funeral. Sai commented once on the abundance of bees that had started to congregate around the bags but was quickly silenced when Ryo’s coffee mug suddenly cracked and shattered in his hand. Kento seemed to be the only who found it wise to keep his thoughts to himself and wordlessly picked up the pieces of broken ceramic.

Seiji sought refuge in the corner of the living room as it was farthest from the perpetually loud television and he had only ten more pages of a book to finish reading. Soft footsteps ventured into the room and he knew without looking up from the pages of his book, whom they belonged to.

"Seiji I made some dinner? You hungry?"

Seiji flipped a page. "No thank you."

"I sort of made it just for you?"

Seiji had heard Ryo clambering around in the kitchen earlier but thought it was due to Sai’s complaints of rusty pipes. With a snap, Seiji’s book shut. "Dinner?"

"I set the table and everything. They guys are out to a movie." Ryo was about to start begging.

Seiji with a short sigh went to move towards the kitchen.

"It’s in the dining room Seiji."

Seiji looked at him in distrust.

 

The normally well lit somber dining area was much different then it usually appeared. The five of them rarely found the occasion to use the formal room, content with leading their own lives in their own way. They shared so much, it was vital that they had some things that were their possession. Even if it was just time to eat your noodles when you wanted.

But the normally abandoned room (used only recently by Rowan who had configured a colossal jig saw puzzle, M. C. Esher, on the table because it was the largest in the house) was very altered. Not only was the forgotten table cloth draped across the table, but the oil lamps that Seiji had once seen stashed in the back of the storage closet were lit and placed in both the tablecenter and the windows.

Seiji sat down carefully at the dimly lit table, and froze when Ryo pushed his chair in for him. "Ryo this really isn’t ness-"

"Remember that one time you said you liked oysters? We were at the pier that one time and you said it once. Remember? I went down and I bought a bunch. Do you want some?"

Seiji submitted to the rushed babbling without comment.

Ryo dashed off to the kitchen and came back with a tray of crushed ice and fresh shucked oysters displayed on it with great care. "These are raw. You said you like them raw."

He watched Ryo set the tray in front of him and proceeded to hover. "I forgot the lemons, hold on, don’t eat any yet!" Ryo ran back to the kitchen.

 

 

Forcing a deep breath, Seiji squeezed a lemon slice over the closest oyster. "Wine?" Lifting the rarely a seen wine glass to his lips, Seiji was more than surprised that Ryo had bought anything that didn’t need have a bottle cap on it.

Ryo squinted at the label. "I dunno, it’s too dark in here to read it."

With a small resigned shrug, Seiji lifted the shell and let the raw shellfish slide into his mouth. It was faintly sweet and good, and for the first time since he had taken his seat did he let his guard down. Maybe this wasn’t so bad after all. Ryo watched him for a little while, content to eat the crackers the oysters were served with and not the oysters themselves. This wasn’t a immense surprise. Ryo had made it very clear on more than one occassion that he thought oysters were slimy and could not compare, no matter the amount of disbelief Seiji had managed to convey, to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Half a tray of oysters and half a glass of wine later, Seiji suddenly paused.

"Do you want some more Seiji?" Ryo’s eyes were wide.

Seiji slowly pushed his chair back and stood, placing his napkin on the table. He walked calmly out of the dining room, down the hall and then Ryo heard the bathroom door shut.

Seiji was throwing up.

 

 

Ryo timidly knocked on the bathroom door. "Are-are you okay?"

There was silence for a moment in the locked room as if Seiji was considering his inquiry but then the coughing suddenly and tragically resumed.

"What is that?" Came Sai’s perpetually alarmed voice.

Ryo sighed. The guys were home. The kitchen light flipped on, shattering the last of what was left of carefully crafted atmosphere. Ryo’s kitchen of oysters and other hopeful culinary wonders was being inspected.

"Hey oysters!" Kento’s loud voice was first. "And those fancy crackers. Are we expecting company or something?"

"These smell very strange," Sai managed to sound sort of depressed. "Oh dear, these oysters are dead."

"Dead? Ya mean like totally rancid? Happened to me once in a Florida raw bar. I barfed for a whole weekend."

"Lovely Ro-chan." Sai said shortly.

"We’ll bury them at sea okay?" Rowan was saying as he walked down the hall. "Hope no body ate em." He stopped when he rounded the corner to see Ryo standing there and heard Seiji gagging in the bathroom. "Nevermind."

 

 

Seiji lay on his bed with a cool wash cloth over his eyes. His head throbbed and his stomach felt as if it would betray him at any second. If he lay perfectly still he could keep the waves of nausea at bay until finally after a few hours they began to ebb completely.

His door opened with a small flustered knock. "Seiji?"

Seiji pulled the wash cloth away and looked up at Ryo wearily.

"I didn’t know you couldn’t leave oysters in your car."

Seiji thought it would be best if he said nothing.

Ryo stepped forward. "Will you come down to the beach Seiji?" With remarkable determination, he made to help Seiji up.

Seiji flinched at Ryo’s hand. "Ryo. Please. No more." He was surprised to find a slight thread of fear in his own voice.

Ryo chewed at his lip. "Aw man, look, I promise this time, I won’t like try to make you eat anything and no flowers! I swear!"

"Ry-"

"Please?"

Seiji, against all that lent one to self preservation, agreed.

 

The beach was quiet and the wind felt nice on his skin. His feverish chills had gone, and his stomach didn't threaten to rebel like it had before. It was close to midnight, the moon was just a sliver in the sky, surrounded by a scattering of attendant stars in the pristine expanse of winter sky.

Seiji was half expecting a blanket waiting for them on the sand complete with violin player and picnic basket. He was very relieved to see the beach was empty.

It was the seashore at night, a romantic cliche of course, but at least it was hopefully benign. What could Ryo do now? Seiji felt himself cringe, but fought it. He could run if he saw any marache bands or singing telegrams.

"A whole year Seiji." Ryo had his hands shoved in his jean pockets, his long black hair blowing around his face with the chill salt wind.

Seiji nodded to himself not sure of what to say.

"I didn’t think I’d ever be with you for a whole year."

Seiji cocked his head at him, listening because was the first thing that had managed to come out of Ryo mouth that didn’t sound like badly rehearsed poem or worse.

"But I’m glad." Ryo gave him his lopsided smile.

They left it like that for a while, the ocean whispering around them, the waves like soft sighs, the constant gentle hiss of the water rushing over the sand.

Wordlessly, Ryo began to stroll to the water's edge. At first Seiji thought he was bored, wanting to feel the wet sand rush over his feet with the tide. But then Ryo took his hand out of his jeans pocket and he could see the tell tale glow of the orb shimmering in his palm. Seiji frowned slightly. He was about to raise is voice when Ryo turned. "This looks like a good a place as any." He informed him.

All was still save for the crashing of the waves and the creak of a far off pier. Ryo's eyes closed in deep concentration, his black hair stirring around his shoulders with the rising wind and the crystal marble in his hand pulsed with the secret, scarlet light. Ryo walked part way into the inky water, knee deep despite his ripped jeans or the frigid cold.

Without a pause, Ryo made a small forceful noise and the orb burned brilliantly, casting a deep red glow over the water. It began to hover and spin in mid-air, rising from Ryo's hand and flying directly above him, climbing higher and higher into the sky, going far up into the air long after gravity laws degreed that it should have reversed its journey.

Seiji’s eyes followed it until its frantic red glow could no longer be seen, disappearing into the dark and mingling with the stars.

Ryo smirked. "Watch this."

The distant orb went berserk.

All of a sudden, the night sky exploded in a bright red flare that blossomed into a shower of sparks that fell down around them like enchanted rain. Another and another, the lights exploded above them, lighting up the sky and turning the dark ocean water into a dizzying flash of color after color. Ryo gazed up at the beautiful display, his face fading into each burst of red then blue then green then gold blasted one by one over the ocean, painting the beach in flaring brilliance and lighting up the crisp winter ebony sky.

Ryo grinned. "Keep watching."

Seiji watched, astonished, as bright red flames soared across the sky in blazing letters among the glittering fireworks. Kanji by kanji, the strokes sliced and sizzled through the air, swiftly dying like embers. The message was clear.

Ryo’s face, sun kissed even in winter, glowed under the red light of the sky. " Like it?"

Seiji felt himself , in a long time, smile ever so slightly.

Ryo blushed. "Good." He approached Seiji confidently and lightly kissed Seiji’s cheek."I was hoping you would." The glad smile was infectious.

Seiji kissed him back. Moving from his mouth to his neck.

"Happy Anniversary Seiji." Ryo said as the fireworks crashed and sprung to life above them lighting up the night for miles around.

the end


End file.
